Raiders' Davante Adams Entire OTA Comments
HENDERSON, Nev.--Las Vegas Raiders superstar wide receiver Davante Adams spoke today after the teams' OTA practice and addressed many topics, including his recently controversial: "I don't see eye to eye," comments about the team's direction.
As soon as those comments were made, I addressed that people implying that Davane Adams wanted to be traded or didn't support Coach Josh McDaniels or General Manager Dave Ziegler were clueless.
You don't have to agree on everything, but that doesn't mean Adams wanted a divorce or didn't support the team's leadership.
You can watch his entire comments and read the transcript below:
Wide Receiver Davante Adams
Q: There was a recent article that came out and just trying to clarify what you meant by there were some disagreements. It seems like people ran with that a little bit and we just want to give you a chance to maybe set the record straight on what you meant.
Adams: "Well, I mean it's not really setting the record straight. I think a lot of things get taken out of context when you don't have an interview to look at or people don't know the full story. So, at the end of the day, I mean there's going to be opinions and you're not always going to see things the exact same way. But when you've earned a right to have an opinion or you see things a certain way -- even going into the operation this offseason, obviously I poked fun at having Aaron [Rodgers] here a lot. Why would I not talk about having the best quarterback to play the game and a guy who have a lot of history with, so that's who I had on my mind initially. So, that was never a slight at Jimmy [Garoppolo], I didn't even know we were pursuing Jimmy, so it had nothing to do with any of that. And then obviously I put something on social media saying: 'Stop hitting me up if I haven't talked to you recently. Don't hit me up about this stuff,' and I already said what that was about, that was clearing up me just getting bombarded with messages like, 'Oh, what's going on? How you feel about this and this and that.' That could have been anybody. But at the end of the day, like I said a couple of times now, I'm ecstatic to get to work with the new guys. Jimmy is a great guy, I love him to death. I didn't know him very well before he got here, but getting to work together a little bit, be around each other, getting to know him, he's a great guy and I'm definitely excited to get to work with him and everybody else that's in here. As far as the front office, I mean I haven't had a relationship in the past -- this is 10 years for me in this game -- and I haven't had a relationship like what I have with those guys. So, everything gets taken out of context. I wouldn't be here -- I mean I told you guys right after the Derek [Carr] thing I was here to stay and I wasn't going anywhere. So, you can grab something and run with it if you want to get clicks, and that's what people often do with me and things that I say whether I misspeak or if I speak up. But at the end of the day I'm a Raider, and I'm excited to be here. I love my head coach, and I love the general manager here and everybody from the top to the bottom. So, I have no reason to lie. I mean one thing I don't do is BS, so I'm not going to make anything up when it comes to that. I'd rather keep my mouth closed if I have negative things to say. But when I say that these are some good men in this in this place that really value the relationship that I have with them, I mean that. That's about all that needs to be said for that."
Q: It does feel listening to you talk that you're given a voice, and it's not just to hear you talk, but it's actually to listen to what you have to say -- that they respect you. Do you get that sense?
Adams: "Correct. I've never been encouraged to speak up and share my feelings with an organization the way I have with these two guys, and I felt that from the first time that I got the call from them right after getting traded that that's the type of environment I was going to be coming into just based off of what they heard about me, the respect they have for things I've done on the field. I try to give them that respect back, and obviously sometimes things get said and taken out of context, like I said, and it's never my intention to bring any type of negative attention or throw off the focus of the team or whatever, which did not happen, by the way. We've got a lot of guys in here who know me well by this point and know my intentions, know I just want to win. I'm here to try to win a Super Bowl like everybody else is on their team. So, that's really my only focus. The thing is with me, I'm unapologetically me. At the end of the day, I truly do not care what people have to say. So, when I'm clearing things up and talking about this stuff, a lot of times it's me protecting other people that were involved. Like I don't ever want Jimmy [Garoppolo] to feel a way, think that I didn't want him here or I don't like him. Or I don't want Josh [McDaniels] to feel like -- or post a picture with Ziegs [Dave Ziegler] and then they're like: 'Oh, is it Josh? That must be the real problem.' So, y'all can do that -- if you're that bored, like go play Monopoly or some shit."
Q: Is that the most difficult part of being a superstar that people parse every word you say?
Adams: "I'd say for the average person, yes. For me, like I said, if nobody came to me and was like: 'These are the issues that are going on the world,' -- first of all I don't pay attention. I like live under a rock half the time. I find out stuff usually last. I told you I found out I was traded on Twitter, so I don't usually know what's going on with that nor do I care. And I don't mean this in a malicious way at all, but I've become who I become by not caring. I was in the dumps. I talked to you guys when I first got here, I was in one of the worst parts of my life when I was in the NFL as far as mental headspace and confidence-wise and everything. And when I learned to stop caring about what other people think -- like now if I drop a ball in the game it's just something that happened it's not like: 'Oh my God, there's 80,000 people in here, it's on TV,' all these things, I don't really have the other factors. Those don't contribute to my mindset in a negative way. So when I hear about it I'm like, 'It is what it is.' So, it's definitely difficult for the average person in this position, but for me I keep it rolling. I'm going to keep it pushing the same way as if it never happened, and the damage control usually comes in to try to make sure people understand. And I don't want guys walking around feeling uncomfortable in the building or otherwise. And it usually only comes where I do decide to come forth and speak up when I actually care about that person enough. And clearly I care about the people in this building to do that."
Q: Right now, Jimmy Garoppolo isn't practicing. What are some other ways that you can work on building the rapport with him?
Adams: "Tape, talk, all that stuff, learning each other. I think Aaron [Rodgers] and my connection on the field went to another level when our relationship off the field went to another level. So, just chopping it up with him. I've gotten to know him pretty well. I mean, obviously it's only been about six weeks or so since we've been doing it, but I know a decent amount about him now and I feel like that'll help us on the field, just knowing him and knowing the way he thinks, some of the things he said to me about what he's seen from me on tape and what he's seen from your practice. That type of stuff helps too."
Q: Obviously you've established yourself as a leader of the team, but another guy that was coming next to throughout practice that was talking a lot was Jakobi Myers. What has been your relationship like with him since he's been here? And what was kind of your idea of who he was as a receiver before he got here?
Adams: "That's a great question. I told Jakobi I learned more about him and part of it was my ignorance. Like I said, I live under a rock a lot of times, so in New England, I didn't see him featured as much as maybe he should have been based off of what I saw when they came here and we practice against them. And so far what I've seen from him now, I mean he's a pro. He's got a lot of tools on the field and the way he thinks about the game, to be a relatively young player is impressive to me. So, I'm excited to work alongside him too."
Q: You talked about you don't care anymore. You don't think about, you don't think about that now, you kind of let that go. Do you think success allowed you to not think about those things, or do you think you had success because you stopped thinking about those things?
Adams: "Another good question. I think that it's a little bit of both. The real confidence -- every receiver is going to tell you: 'I think I'm the best,' or, 'I want to be the best.' That's the right mindset to have, but once you have a little bit behind it, whether it's the resume or you made plays in practice or just your work ethic, you've changed something in the way you operate on a daily basis, the things that you actually do contribute to the mindset and the true confidence. Because we can all say whatever. You can say: 'I'm the best writer in the world,' but if everything you write is lackluster, then you're just saying it at that point, nobody else is going to really respect it. So, I just put the work in, and like I said, I started to forget some of the other things and just put it out of my mind, changed my mindset a little bit. And once I had enough behind it, it just kind of I guess intensified that confidence and that kind of 'I don't really care' factor, and here we are."
Q: You’ve mentioned that earning respect means a lot to you. Last year, Sam Webb talked about almost pinching himself that he gets to compete against you in practice. What is it about Sam Webb that you like about his game?
Adams: “Well, just that part that you said right there. Another player who I played with in the past that turned out to be, I mean he's probably the best in the league right now, in Jaire Alexander. Same type of thing when came in. I never seen a guy – I mean, usually I beat a guy on one-on-one’s and they kind of just chalk it up like, I'm a rookie, that's Davante, like it is what it is. I'm not going to get kicked off the team for him beating me, and Jaire was in the locker room right after the first training camp practice and he had his iPad out before anybody came in there, like literally looking at the plays trying to figure out what it was, and he comes up to me and asked like" ‘I don't want to bother you, but like what happened here? How did you know I was going to react this way, or whatever?’ So, Sam kind of has that edge, and I'm not comparing him to Jaire. Jaire is obviously in a different place in his career right now. But the intentionality and just the care to want to get better like that and to learn and for it to mean as much as it does to him, that says a lot about him as a player. So, that's why when you have an open book like that, it’s easy to kind of put him under your wing and teach him in. The more we do, the more he wants to learn, the more he comes and talks to me about it. And then I see the growth and then we'll talk about something. I might shoot myself in the foot, tell him something, and then he’ll actually play it really well based off of that, but that's what we want. That's what I want to see as a leader and as a vet on the team. I want to see the young guys take in information, not just coming up and talking just to be like: ‘Oh, I talked to Davante about whatever,’ just to put on a show. So, I respect that about him, that it means a lot to him to be able to ask those type of questions, which is why I kind of naturally gravitated toward him.”
Q: It just felt like watching out there that maybe you guys were a little bit ahead of the curve compared to this time last year. I know there are some new faces, a new quarterback, but do you feel like there's a more progressive starting point this year compared to last year?
Adams: “For sure, definitely. I mean, we're in a different spot right now just having a year under our belt now with this system and with this coaching staff. I think part of it, to give the coaches a little bit of credit too, is they’re in a different place and obviously understand that we get it a little bit more now. So, it's not really as much guys running around with their hair on fire. It’s a little bit more toned down, not that they're not getting after us, because they should as coaches still, but there's a little bit of these guys understand it and they’ve made progress, so we can kind of chill out a little bit too. I mentioned that to EB [Edgar Bennett] yesterday, I said I can feel that from the coaches, and I think that the players respond well to stuff like that. And obviously if we're not improving and we don't look better, I'm not expecting them to be that way. So, obviously that's a little bit of both sides working and kind of meeting in the middle.”
Q: Being in year two under Coach McDaniels system, how much does that benefit you in terms of learning the nuances of the system?
Adams: “I mean, I'm just in a whole different spot coming in now. It's almost like taking the same course twice. You take algebra once, which I've never done, I don't know if anybody's ever experienced that. But yeah, taking the same course, you go in and you take algebra the first time, you never heard of algebra, you never dealt with it before and you've taken calculus before and trigonometry, and then you got to unlearn everything about trig and then go to this now. So, that was part of kind of the adjustment for me, was unlearning some of the things that I knew before that is obviously going to be a little bit of a bastard in this offense. And once you can let go of some of those things, you can now play a lot faster and just be flowing. It's not as stressful nights trying to study and memorize what I'm doing here and doing there. And also, the coaches simplified some stuff for us and made it a little easier coming back too. Like I said, we fed off each other there to make it a little bit easier.”
Q: I listened to your interview with Brandon Marshall, and you talked about some specific things from last season. You mentioned the Kansas City incident. What were some of the low lights that you found to be a roller coaster mentally last year that you were able to grow from?
Adams: “There was nothing, really. I mean, I wouldn't look at the KC incident as something that – I don't want to say I didn't learn from it because that makes it sound like I'm not remorseful and stuff like that, but it was just an instance, it's not something that I needed that to happen for me to know that was not the right thing to do. So, it was just something that happened. At the end of the day, it was more so learning from some of the stuff that happened on the field and learning patience, dealing with new coaches, a new system, and coming in and being used to having 13 wins for my last three years in Green Bay. And the other thing I talk to people about is understanding the importance of – I mean, this is a little bit off topic, but just the quality of life too. I believe I mentioned it – in Green Bay we won a lot of games, but it still was a certain level of, I don't know if it's because we took it for granted or whatever, but now I have a better understanding for how good it feels to win. So, going through some of the trials last year and losing some a lot of the games that we should or could have won, patience and those of go hand in hand. And I learned that it's, it's definitely not as easy as maybe we made it look before. So, working with new guys and coming in with even more new guys this year, basically I think patience is the biggest word at the end of the day.”
Q: This is only going to be like your third different quarterback since high school. How daunting, inspiring, refreshing is that learning curve going to be? And also, you didn't have to take college algebra at Fresno State?
Adams: "I'm not going to answer the last part. (laughter) Well, I had Christoph Bono. There’s a couple of older guys in here that know (former NFL quarterback) Steve Bono. His son was my quarterback (in high school). Then obviously, I had Derek, then who did I have in Green Bay? Aaron in Green Bay. (laughter) Also, shout out to Brett Hundley out there too. So, I had a couple of them. But yeah, I've been blessed man with some very confident and capable throwers of the ball. I can attribute a lot of my success to learning from those guys, honestly, because Christoph had a lot more reps than me, I guess, at that point. I wouldn't say experience because I knew football, but he had a lot more reps than me. So, I did learn some stuff from him and his dad at that point coming in. Obviously, I learned a lot from Derek [Carr] at Fresno, and then learned how to be a pro and how to do things the right way in Green Bay, and how to practice and how to lead and all that stuff from Aaron [Rodgers]. So, I've been blessed, man, having some of the guys that I've had to throw me the ball, for sure.
The Raiders' offseason workout schedule is as follows:
OTA Offseason workouts: May 22-23, May 25, May 31-June 2, June 12-15
Mandatory Minicamp: June 6-8
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